Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
1997-06-06
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
11 pages, TeX. Submitted to ApJ
Scientific paper
We analyze the collective gravitational interaction among gas clouds in the inner regions of galactic disks and find that it leads to accretion at a rate $\sim M_{mc}\Omega (M_{mc}/M_t)^2$; where $M_{mc}$ is the molecular mass of the disk, $M_t$ is sum of the central plus any axisymmetrically distributed mass, and $\Omega$ is the mean angular speed of clumps. We discuss applications of this result to the mega-maser galaxy NGC 4258, for which we have observational evidence that the maser spots are concentrated in a thin molecular disk which is clumpy, and find the accretion rate to be about $1.5\times 10^{-3}$ solar mass per year. If the gravitational energy release of this inward falling gas were to be radiated away efficiently, then the resulting luminosity would greatly exceed the observed central luminosity of NGC 4258, indicating that most of the thermal energy of the gas is advected with the flow into the blackhole as proposed by Lasota et al. (1996). The gravitational interactions among molecular clouds lying within the inner kpc of our galaxy give an accretion rate of about $10^{-5}$ solar mass per year, which is consistent with the value obtained by Narayan et al. (1995) by fitting the spectrum of Sagitarrius A$^*$. We also discuss possible application of this work to quasar evolution.
No associations
LandOfFree
Gas accretion in a clumpy disk with application to AGNs does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Gas accretion in a clumpy disk with application to AGNs, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Gas accretion in a clumpy disk with application to AGNs will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-548192